By Marcus Tolero
The City College of San Francisco women’s swim team had a historic weekend at the Coast Conference Championships.
The 200-medley relay team of Alika Lew-Koga, Julia Lane, Ashley Davis, and Sophia Greco recorded a finals time of 1:51.94 and captured CCSF’s first-ever conference championship in this event. Greco won the 400 individual medley 4:46.09 and 200 back (2:07.88) and finished second in the 200 individual medley (2:15.67), Davis won the 100 freestyle (54.89) and finished second in the 100 fly (59.34) and 200 fly (2:14.25), Lew-Koga placed second in the 100 backstroke (1:00.33) and 200 backstroke (2:10.90), and the 800 free-relay team (Greco, Lane, Lew-Koga, Davis) finished second (8:27.10). The team’s 564 overall points was strong enough for a second-place finish at the championships.
“I knew that we had a chance for a top-three finish, and second place was achievable, but not concrete for sure. But it worked out well and we finished in second place at the end,” Head Coach Phong Pham said.
Pham credits the performance of his 200-medley relay team, all five relay teams finishing in the top three, and individual swimmers moving up in the season rankings and advancing into the finals as the key to their runner-up finish. Pham also said having five swimmers in the 1650 freestyle finals helped push the Rams up to the podium.
The Rams won’t have too much time to celebrate because the state championships are right around the corner.
“We have three individual swimmers and five relay teams qualify for the state championships. This is the first time in the history of CCSF swimming that we are able to send a relay team to compete at state – and we are sending five,”
“This week we’ll be concentrating on improving aerobic capacity and refining stroke and racing skills. I believe we’re going to drop some good times because the team will be more rested and refined,” Pham said.”